Sampedrana visit

Despite the fact that the tailgate fell off half way up the hill...the road still is pretty nice to Sampedrana. 

The bolt breaking was rust and wear related (no surprise there) not the smooth flowing road.   

Otherwise the drive up was pleasant, and without much in the way of bumps.  I could get used to that....but I won't. 

We had lunch, another delicious PB&J day, and got to work...this time tackling a problem with the mission house:  The rain and humidity given the location is causing the bottom floor of the house to have a musty odor, related to water filtering up next to the building.  Our first resort is having the group help and dig a trench out next to the wall.  They did everything we were anticipating before the day was up...only we were thinking it would take two full days!  We are hoping this will work, but if the problem persists, we have some other options to make it more livable and less habitable.

As you can see...progress is being made on the Church building.  Praise God!  It is so encouraging to see it going up so quickly.  Hill Climber coffee and the work of so many brothers and sisters there in Sampedrana have made all this work possible.  We are anticipating the inaugaration in early August with a very special group that will be here.  Starting to see how big the building will be is encouraging.  I am hoping we see them dealing with the problem that the building is not big enough in a few years! 

We had a chance to take a look at some coffee property while we were there.  Hill Climber coffee's profits are tied up in last year's purchase of the property in San Juancito, but this could be a possibility for a purchase with some help from some friends in the US buying it as investment that could be used for the mission.  If this purchase comes to fruition...we could have 35 or more acres to clean, prepare and try to find the help for planting the coffee (just buying the plants costs over $1,000 per acre.)  The waiting period between planting and first harvest in three years takes patience, finances, and lots of prayer..... 

...and we have all prayed so much for the Hill Climber coffee property originally purchased several years ago.   Here you can see Gender and Oscar looking at the coffee there.  In the foreground is some of the newly cleared and planted coffee...good quality stuff, being cared for, and anticipating a future harvest there as well.  That property is only 1.5 acres, but it is making a difference.  We should make from the smaller harvests including next year's enough to pay for the property already!  Seeing the work, the patience there...and what could be with the resources for the larger potential property...the benefit long term to the mission is exciting!